REPORT #355 August 2000
DANGRIGA WATER SUPPLY FROM THE RIVER IN DANGER! AIDS AND THE BATTLE PUZZLES POLITICIANS IN BELMOPAN!
BELIZE MEDIA RECENTLY TACKLED THE PROBLEM OF SEX WORKERS RIGHTS!

Produced by the Belize
Development Trust

The legislature have been discussing, or may be it was the Cabinet.
Don't think the legislature discuss much of anything, it being a one
party rubber stamp body.

Anyway, there has been discussions in the PUP political party realm up
there in the rarified air of Belmopan the capital, about the problems
with contamination of the river flowing down through the Pomona Valley
and through the coastal port of Dangriga.

At the town, they swim in the river. Way up the valley, 15 miles or
so, they swim and wash clothes in the river. Also the Citrus business
endeavors recently bought out by the CDC of England apparently has some
waste citrus material storage ponds, that overflow into the river when it
rains even a little bit extra.

To cap it all, the town of Dangriga gets it's main water supply from
the river, but uses brackish water from wells, when they realize the
river water is unhealthy. They apparently have the capacity to test for
PH levels and recently during one contamination phase the river was noted
to be acidic. So they switched to the well sources. They do not seem to
have the capacity to test for e-coli bacteria though. Should! It is a
simple enough test.

The gist of all the past few weeks public debating, has been the
politicos in Belmopan discussing what to do about it? Apparently, the
solution put forth has been to recommend a different source for the town
of Dangriga water supply.

Now I would like to take the opposite viewpoint with this proposition
put forth in the rarified realms of political policy making in Belmopan,
if I may?

The short term solution, they feel in Belmopan is to change the source
of the water supply. I personally think that is a cop out! It is not
the solution.

If you decide on that solution, you are telling any industry, including
mining and the citrus industry, that it is okay to pollute the river in
the name of export products and incoming foreign exchange Euro dollars.

That is not the way I see Belize! I rather think that industry has to
clean up it's own act and go to whatever expense it has to, in order to
operate. The Stann Creek River running through Dangriga town, or any
other river for that matter, is not a sewage canal. It should remain
PRISTINE, clear and drinkable and swimmable. If population levels and
new towns and villages and more industries are going to inhabit the
Pomona Valley, or anywhere else in Belize, for that matter; keeping the
environment clean is part of the social compact. Rather than seeking new
water sources and allowing industry to pollute the Stann Creek river,
better, you insist that effluent and industrial operations of any kind,
only put into the ground water, or the river, a waste product that can
pass pollution tests.

In other words, clean up the sewage before it goes anywhere! That is
part of protecting the country for future generations and the price of
development. I would think that would be logical and common sense, but
when it comes to business, business people like to take shortcuts.
Politicians too! Not so! It is the politicians responsible obligation
to keep the rivers pristine, pure and clean, more than seeking any
industrial activity that will bring in dollars but pollute same. That is
just good stewardship!

AIDS AND THE BATTLE PUZZLES POLITICIANS IN BELMOPAN!
There is a lot of hot air and political rhetoric in Belmopan about the
AIDS epidemic. So far, I have seen nothing in the media about FREE AIDS
TESTING! Considering that statistically speaking the number of persons
infected are supposed to be five times the actual number of people
actually known to be with the disease, this is alarming. I would think
blood tests would be a legal requirement of the public health department
and any licensed doctor in Belize that is suspicious of any associated
complaints from persons visiting the doctor, or rural village nursing
clinics.

You cannot fight what you do not know! To know what you actually have,
you need reliable statistics. To get these, you need wide spread blood
testing for HIV +. Then you
need public awareness campaigns, and perhaps measures like Cuba uses, to
identify such people infected and assume social responsibility for them
in communities where they are aware. You cannot stop the sex drive, but
you can perhaps create social living situations wherein they have sex
with each other and not the uninfected. First you need genuine
knowledge, testing and statistics.

BELIZE MEDIA RECENTLY TACKLED THE PROBLEM OF SEX WORKERS RIGHTS!
There was a lot of hurrah recently about the SEX WORKERS of Raul's Rose
Garden, I believe the place was called. These type of establishments in
Belize have been around for a very long time. Under our law, it is
alright for a private, adult to adult arrangement to trade the sex act
for money. But you cannot legally solicit. The houses that cater to
this trade are usually, night clubs, bars and other places. The girls
are usually away from home in other countries where their reputations
will not be sullied. The British Army doctors in the past used to have
weekly testing of the girls in Belize City area, for sexually transmitted
diseases. These girls come here from some other country where they are
not known and can practice their profession, or career in anonymity.
They are hired as waitresses and hostesses. They are for dancing,
sharing companionship at a table and waitressing. If a man wants one for
sex, he broaches the subject to the girl and they negotiate the going
rate. The girl never solicits the man! That is against the law in
Belize. It makes for a fairly refined trade and business.

The local media fuss recently was about these girls getting work
permits. There are some girls of Belizean extraction who are in the
trade. But very few on the local scene. Like the incoming Salvadoranean
girls, or Honduran girls, the Belizean girls who sell service in the SEX
act usually practice in another country, like Amsterdam, Holland, or Los
Angeles in the USA.

The SEX trade is a proper business. With males of young age being
stimulated and making semen several times a day and needing to ejaculate,
a source of ready females who will accommodate them for a price is a
proper thing. In countries where this is suppressed, you have an
increase of all kinds of weird religious convictions, sects and wierdo
crimes. Sex is healthy and normal. It is simple good health.

The protection of SEX WORKERS rights should be foremost in any new
world order.

Women who enter the SEX TRADE CAREER field do so for a variety of
reasons. Many in Belize have worked around the world, from Bangkok, to
Japan to Amsterdam and London. The career gives a girl a chance to
travel. It also gives one of low education, the opportunity to earn more
than a clerk, or secretarial wage. The only place legal in the USA is
the state of Nevada, but many married women and single women work there
with children, who have Ph'ds believe it or not. As they can make plenty
more money from the upper brackets of the gambling high rollers of Las
Vegas. Plus they meet interesting men, get paid very well and enjoy sex
as a recreational sport.

The problems around the world for SEX WORKERS are lack of union
capability to get better working conditions. In countries where cultural
attitudes are dominated by either criminal mafia or religious sects, they
become subject to debt bondage, beatings, police thuggery and other
hazards not faced by secretarial workers. At heart, is the male macho
attitude based usually on either religious viewpoints ( e.g. Moslem,
Catholic, etc.) for control of WOMEN'S LABOR.

The media in England for instance, has announced statistics that around
2000 girls are being imported per year from the wars in the Balkans in
conditions of white slavery and artificial debt bondage, beatings and
kidnappings to serve the criminal gangs of London and other big cities in
the U.K. Yet the U.K. Police force is here in Belize presuming to teach
locals how to police. They can't do it at home, but they are going to do
it here?

There are SEX WORKERS who are millionaires. There have been articles
in magazines about California girls working in Brunai, hired to look
decorative as hostesses and getting upward of $50,000 per assignment. (
Oil rich Moslem kingdom.) Some girls in Belize working are Mexicans and
have bought more than five houses in Mexico, which they collect rents
from and support extended families. Many girls love to travel and enjoy
sex with clean clientele. The rub for female SEX WORKERS are the working
conditions! Health programs, non-abusive conditions, protection from the
police and immigration officers by having legal working permits and other
such things, should be the right of SEX WORKERS. Many girls simply enter
the trade for two or three years away from home where they can be
anonymous, so they can go home, buy a house and marry the childhood
sweetheart. She lies and tells him and the family, she is working as a
secretary. But cannot make this kind of money at home in Tegucigalpa to
make a start in marrying and raising a family.

Belize has fairly enlightened policies for SEX WORKERS, but more could
be done and put into legislation to protect the girls in these careers.
We simply have to put aside a lot of the religious created CONTROL FREAKS
that have subjegated such workers in the past. A SEX WORKER should be
able to work legally and with all the safeguards and protections of any
other labor worker.